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The houses give way to rangeland as the road winds through Cordes Lakes, Arizona, just 35 miles east of Prescott. On either side of the rutted dirt lane the Sonoran desert stretches as far as you can see over rough exposed canyon walls, worn washes and dry manzanita. As our car rattles over the washboard we talk about Arizona - the Arizona that we have read about, the one that we saw in movies growing up - and comment on how much this vista fits that historic image of rattlesnakes and tumbleweeds.
Angel Florey rescues horses from slaughter - and puts them to work as child therapists.
We wind across a plateau and down into a steep wash where a gate bars our path, but instead of getting out to open and then close it again, my tour guide rolls down her window and pulls up to a small silver box where she pushes some buttons. Like magic, the gate swings open in silent acquiescence to Dawn Mihok, President of Tending Animals In Loving Safety (TAILS), a horse rescue organization that recently began operating on this leased ranch along the Verde River.
The road drops downward; in a moment we have lost the arid, high desert landscape, and in front of me is green, a long artery of lush cottonwood trees and pastures neatly bordered with white-painted welded pipe fence. Down here the air is cooler and the breeze is heavy with life. We stop on a hill and look out over the pastures dotted with grazing horses - animals, for the most part, rescued from neglect and cruelty, animals now working as
Abused animals
“You just wouldn’t believe what people do to their horses, how pathetic some of these poor animals are when we get them,” Dawn said. “They come from all over. Some are pets that people decided that they either didn’t want or couldn’t afford or whose owners just sort of forgot about. Others are blatantly neglected or abused. Sometimes a family has to move and they are unable to take the animal with them, and sometimes owning a horse is just more then they bargained for.”
Around us some 60-odd horses mill about, eating grass or drinking from the scattered water tanks. Dawn walks to a corral fence and looks out over an unlikely herd as she tells a modern tale of the horse, an animal whose place is now far different from the stereotypical noble beasts of the American west.
“People don’t really need horses anymore,” she said. “There are tractors to plow farms, and most working ranches - the few that are left - are run more by quads than animals.” People who buy horses do so because there is a certain cachet in owning one, riding on the weekends and standing in the stable brushing and polishing the saddles. It harkens back to the days when Arizona was what it became famous for: frontier. Horses today, though, have a much different life. They are pets, companion animals for the rich or the aspiring rich, and when times change and money gets tight, the horses are often forgotten or forsaken.
“Horses are an industry just like anything else,” Dawn said. “They are bought and sold, used and discarded when their usefulness is ended.”
As we watch the horses in this pasture we are joined by Angel Florey and her mother Rhonda Corio, the muscle behind TAILS. Angel lives on the ranch and is responsible for the daily operation as well as acquisition, rehabilitation, and eventual adoption of the horses.
“TAILS started in May of 2004,” Angel said. “I was working here on the ranch when the founder left. When she was gone, I picked it up and have been running it ever since.”
Angel has worked with horses all her life, so running a ranch that rescues horses seems natural. “I’ve been aware of the need for a rescue for a long time and just never had the opportunity to do anything about it,” she said. “Now I work here and have the space to do something that is really important.”
Saved from slaughter
Horse rescue comes in many different forms, not all of them dire situations.
“People looking to unload a horse call asking if we can take the animal in,” Dawn said. “While we like to ask lots of questions about why they can’t keep it, in an effort to make them keep their responsibility, in the end we will take the horse if we have the space.”
Other horses come from situations far more grim.
“Occasionally we get horses from the livestock auctions either through open bidding or because no other bidders want them,” Dawn said. “If a horse isn’t bid on then it goes to slaughter. We’ll sometimes bid on the horses, but then you get into the whole business of ‘if’ and we can’t afford to buy them all, and it just breaks your heart.
“Sometimes we get them from Animal Control through investigations of reports of neglected animals. Most of those are local,” she said, meaning from all over Arizona. “We don’t really differentiate between private versus commercial sources. We take horses from just about anywhere, and most of the ones on the ranch right now are from people who just couldn’t or wouldn’t keep their horse.”
The tragedy of PMU horses
TAILS takes in an unusual type of refugee, “PMU mares,” but Dawn is reluctant to talk about them.
“People ask us about the PMU mares and that’s good, but I worry that folks will think that’s all we do here and it isn’t. We take in horses from all over and the PMUs, while sad, are just one part of our population.”
PMU is the acronym for Pregnant Mare Urine, used in the production of human hormone replacement medications. The use of mare urine for the production of human female hormones is not new; hormone replacement drugs came onto the market in the middle 1980s and have been a soaring success. Even with the recent downturn in hormone replacement therapy due to risks of cancer, PMU medications are still top sellers for pharmaceutical companies, which supports the continued practice of “farming” mares as a ranching business. Starting at about age three, ranchers keep these mares pregnant and keep them in pens as an easy way to collect their urine. The only time the mares are let out is after they foal, when they are put in a coral with a stud so that they can immediately get pregnant again.
Normally, an average mare may have two to four foals in a lifetime; in the PMU setup, a mare may have from ten to twelve foals, with each pregnancy lasting eleven months.
Dawn and Angel are both visibly upset as they talk about this but say little beyond the simple recitation of facts, as if just saying it is more then they can bear. Their silence is in marked contrast to the passion they feel for their cause and for their animals.
“There isn’t much we really can say,” Dawn said, petting the head of horse who has ambled over to where we are standing by a gate. “We haven’t been to these places and haven’t seen them for ourselves, so to speculate on the actual conditions would be legally dangerous for us.”
“Some of them have lice or parasites,” Rhonda said. “They are underweight by hundreds of pounds. They have bad hooves and behavior problems. Many of them have arthritis in their back and knees. Many have worms.”
“I just started crying when the first truck load of them showed up here,” Dawn said.
“Some of them show up pregnant, “ Angel said. “We’ve had three babies born here on the ranch.”
Therein lies the paradox that proves the success of TAILS. As I look around for the horses that arrived in such bad shape, I can’t find any of them. In pasture after pasture, all of the horses look tall and strong and healthy. With these horses in good condition standing around us I asedk Dawn how she views hormone replacement therapy in the larger context.
“I’m not in the position of needing that kind of therapy so in all fairness it is difficult to make any kind of judgment,” she said. “However, as with all things regarding our health, education is the key and I would like to believe that if people understood the kind of shape these horses are in when they show up here, then most people would seek alternative therapies, regardless of who is responsible or how it happened.”
A way out
Regardless of where the horses come from they all follow the same process. First, they are quarantined for 30 days to make sure they don’t pass on an undetected communicable disease. After quarantine, they move into the general population of horses, sorted as much as possible by personality, age or temperament. “We try to put them with horses that they will get along with,” Angel said.
“For the most part, when a person asks us to take a horse, the animal is in reasonable shape,” Dawn said. “Maybe the horse has problems with behavior and couldn't be ridden. So, generally they are OK and we are able to do some training with the horses and foster them out or adopt them to another family.”
After rehabilitation and training using the Linda Tellington Jones training method which promotes a gentle interaction, a horse is available for adoption; but it isn’t a simple matter to take one of these animals home. TAILS has a rigorous process for screening applicants that extends well after the horse goes home with a new owner.
“The goal is not necessarily to adopt the horse out,” Dawn said with a smile. “Of course, we have to find homes for them in order to have the space and resources to bring in more; the goal of TAILS is to find a good home. We don’t send them home with just anyone.”
Those seeking to adopt a horse must fill out an application and provide references from veterinarians or stables where they may have kept other horses. If TAILS accepts the application then the prospective owner comes out to this desert oasis to work with their chosen horse. A TAILS representative inspects the horse’s new home to make sure it is fit for the animal, with enough space and acceptable sanitation. Only after the prospective owner has demonstrated that he or she can work with the horse appropriately and has adequate space and resources to take care of it, can the horse go to its new home. TAILS maintains the right to conduct spot checks to make sure that the horse is in good health, and the right to take the horse back if conditions do not measure up.
The cost of social benefits
TAILS spends about $1,100 to acquire a horse, but that’s just the beginning. Each monthly bill includes about $1,400 for feed, $2,200 for hay, $800 for vets and $300 for farrier services. All of the money comes from private sources and donations and does not include the costs in time and effort to rehabilitate horses that have been abused and neglected.
“It varies,” Dawn said. “Sometimes it’s really more just boarding then anything else. Other times, well, you never really know. We have the large animal vet out here regularly and the plain truth is that some of these horses will never be rehabilitated; they will stay here until they die and that’s OK with me. Here they are safe and well cared for, maybe for the first time in their lives.”
How important is this, really? Talking about saving horses in a time of war, when more children are growing up in broken homes, when high school graduations are at an all time low, when the number of homes torn apart by drug abuse is growing, all seems a bit off the mark, at least to someone like myself who has no real connection to horses. I pose this idea to Dawn, who seems both amused and frustrated by it.
“You could make that argument all day long and no one will win it,” she chuckles. “Since you brought it up, though, I can tell you that TAILS currently has two programs that use horses as a vehicle to reach out to troubled youth. So, we aren’t just about saving horses or crusading around about corporate injustices. We have a direct connection to improving the lives of people. On the one hand we encourage education about PMU mares and the whole issue of animal husbandry and responsibility, and on the other we work to improve the lives of kids while simultaneously improving the lives of horses.
“Besides, not everyone gets to save the world, we don’t all get to play Superman. We each have to find the one thing we can do and then do it,” she said. “This is what we do here, and we are all proud of it and feel that it is vital and important.”
“We work with the Character Counts program for two schools in the Cave Creek area,” Angel said. The children, all in primary grade special education classes, have broad ranges of disabilities from ADHD to developmental delay. Character Counts is a non-compulsory state wide program teaching kids the values of civic mindedness; participating schools can use a standard curriculum plan or tailor it to their own needs. But how do horses teach good citizenship?
“Kids have to earn the trust of the horse,” Angel said. “They have to behave responsibly around them and care for them. Mostly, they have to respect the horse. Kids can connect with the animals that they feel have been through similarly bad situations.”
Teaching self control behavior with the horses, Rhonda added, carries over to self control in the classroom.
TAILS is also working with NARHA, the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association. Rhonda is earning HARHA certification to work with both physically and mentally handicapped people of all ages. She said she’d like to see both programs move into area schools.
“I want to look into the Prescott Unified School District and Mayer for opportunities. That would mean finding someone else to work with schools in the Valley,” she said. “I’d like to see us work with a broader range of ages in all our programs.”
Making it work
Saving horses and helping the disabled is not just expensive, it is time consuming and physically difficult work - work accomplished today by just a handful of people. Only Angel and Rhonda work with the 60 horses full time; volunteers who come out to brush and clean and just be close to the horses are the backbone of the program. Unfortunately, volunteers are hard to get and even harder to keep, though there is a core at the ranch who are very faithful.
In addition to volunteering their caring hands for the horses, community members have other skills that TAILS would very much appreciate.
“We have been working very hard to raise money,” Dawn said. “This summer we had a huge barbeque and even got some state legislators to show up. The money was good but way short of what we needed. We just received our 501(c)3 from the IRS, so that will make donating money and raising money easier for us.
“If you know anyone who writes grants for a living, let me know. We could use the help because none of us have ever done it. We need office supplies and furniture, computers and people who can teach us how to network them and use them. We always need people out here to help with the work, even if you don’t know much about horses.”
But money and volunteers isn’t what TAILS desires most. “What we really need is for people to dive a damn,” Dawn said. “Not just the horse owners, but everyone else, too. We need people to understand that a pet, any kind of pet, is a responsibility. We need women to be educated about Hormone Replacement Therapies to see the impact of their decisions so that they can make different choices. We need people to spread the word about our rescue so that we can save more horses, but also about the PMUs so that we can help solve the problem at its source.”
It seems like a tall order. Still, standing in the dust of the narrow road overlooking the pastures it’s easy to believe that hope, hard work and a caring community can make it happen, and easy to believe that a small organization can make a big difference in how we think.
For information on how you can get involved in helping TAILS, contact Angel Florey at 928-632-8029 or write PO Box 1565, Dewey, AZ, 86327.
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